Lecture 1 - What is Science? A Science of politics
Comparative Politics - POLS 3311

Overview

• what is science?

• Applying science to human behavior

• More on the comparative method

• Good Scientific questions

Followup from Monday

• Politics main concern isn’t necessarily the welfare of the people. Why do I emphasize this?

    - You can't assume the state is representative of all the people or even cares about "the people's interests" - not every state is a democracy and not every democracy functions properly
    - You can't assume the state or political actors are benevolent
    - If we want to analyze how the world works, we can't start with bad assumptions
    - We may be concerned with the welfare of the people, but assuming others always are is bad science

• Scientific questions - will cover today

What is science?

• Based on proof
• Scientific Method
• Falsifiability

What is science? Based on proof

• Positive not normative

• Based on physical proof that can be empirically tested

• About explaining the world as it is

• Not based on ideas about what “should be”

What is science? Scientific Method

1. Define a research question

2. Make predictions - hypothesis

3. Gather data

            + Experiments
            + Observations 

4. Analyze the data to test the hypothesis

5. Draw conclusions

What is science?

Falsifiability - testing the hypothesis

• Karl Popper (1902-1994) - critical rationalism
• hypotheses (pl.) should be testable empirically
• false hypotheses are rejected
• hypotheses not rejected are confirmed as approximately true

More on the comparative method

Types of research

• Experiment - random assignment, manipulation, control and treatment group

• Observational

            + Case study (single case, n = 1)
            + Comparative (small-n, can be large-n)
            + Statisticial (large-n)

More on the four approaches

Research Questions: The First Step

Non-scientific questions:

    + Did the decision repealing Roe v Wade violate rights? (Political Philosophy - POLS 3310, 3349, 4344)
    + Was this case properly decided legally? (Law - POLS 3356,3357)
    + Is there a right to abortion in the Constitution? (Law - POLS 3356,3357)
    + When does life begin? (Philosopy/Theology - PHIL 1301, PHIL3351)
    + Should Samuel Alito be impeached?  (American politics/Constitutional Law - POLS 3364,3356)
    + Should Harry Blackmun be canonized? (Theology - Check with the appopriate church)

Research Questions: The First Step

Good scientific questions

1. About cause and effect

            + "Does X cause Y?" 
            + "What causes Y?"
            + NOT "What is the value of Y?" - just measurement

2. Should be measurable

3. It should be specific at least as to the outcome (Y, dependent variable)

4. “Why” questions are most interesting: “Why do different countries adopt a different policy with regard to Y?”

Research Questions: The First Step

Good scientific question:

Does the gender of litigators (lawyers) affect judicial decisions?

Writing

• Write a research question

    - What topic are you interested in?
    - What is the dependent variable? The "Y"? The outcome?
    - Do you have an idea about the independent variable? The "X"? The cause?
    - I am here to answer your questions
    - Would anyone like to volunteer to walk through the process? *extra credit and you can leave when you're done*

Authorship, License, Credits

• Author: Tom Hanna

• Website: tomhanna.me

• License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.</>